Man pleads guilty to July 2016 manslaughter
Lesser charge could mean up to 30 years behind bars.

A man who was about to stand trial on a murder charge next week pleaded guilty to a lesser charge Tuesday in Allen Superior Court.

Davon M. Burden, 28, pleaded guilty to a newly filed charge of voluntary manslaughter, a Level 2 felony, and the straight up plea means he faces a maximum of 30 years behind bars.

According to terms of the plea agreement, if Allen Superior Court Judge John Surbeck accepts it at sentencing July 28, charges of murder, criminal recklessness and a firearm used in commission of an offense would be dismissed.

According to investigators, Davon M. Burden, 28, confronted his former girlfriend and the mother of five children that they had together at her home July 5 in the 4100 block of Euclid Avenue. She tried to close the door on Burden, but he fired three .22-caliber rounds through that door; one struck Dominic Norton, 28, in the abdomen, according to court documents.

Police were dispatched to the home at a minute past midnight on the morning of July 5. When they arrived, Norton was still able to communicate. Through his words and the accounts of others, police identified Burden as a suspect in the shooting.

Norton was taken to Lutheran Hospital in critical condition. He died there later the morning of July 5.

Fort Wayne Police publicly identified Burden as a “person of interest” in the killing of Norton a day later.

During the change of plea hearing, Burden informed the court he “killed a man knowingly under certain heat.”